Distribution of steroid- and dioxin-like activities between sediments, POCIS and SPMD in a French river subject to mixed pressures

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 20; no. 5; pp. 2784 - 2794
• Main Authors: Creusot, Nicolas, Tapie, Nathalie, Piccini, Benjamin, Balaguer, Patrick, Porcher, Jean-Marc, Budzinski, Hélène, Aït-Aïssa, Selim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.05.2013; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Aquatic environment; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bioassays; Bioavailability; Cell Line; Chemical contaminants; Chemical Fractionation; Chemical properties; Chemicals; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Contaminated sediments; Contamination; Dioxins; Dioxins - analysis; Dioxins - metabolism; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Ecotoxicology and Environmental Toxicology : new concepts; Endocrine disruptors; Endocrine Disruptors - analysis; Endocrine Disruptors - metabolism; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental Monitoring - instrumentation; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental Sciences; estrogenic properties; exposure assessment; Fluvial sediments; Fractionation; France; Freshwater; Geologic Sediments - analysis; hormone antagonists; Investigations; Life Sciences; new tools; Organic compounds; Organic contaminants; pollution; pregnanes; Receptors, Androgen - metabolism; Receptors, Estrogen - metabolism; Receptors, Steroid - metabolism; Rivers; Rivers - chemistry; Sediments; Solid Phase Extraction; Steroids; Studies; Surface water; Toxicology; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Water Pollutants, Chemical - metabolism; Water pollution; Water Pollution Control; Water treatment; France; Passive samplers; HPLC fractionation; Endocrine disrupters; In vitro profiling; Partitioning; ENDOCRINE DISRUPTERS; PARTITIONING; HPLC FRACTIONATION; IN VITRO PROFILING; PASSIVE SAMPLERS
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-012-1452-5

The contamination of aquatic systems by endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is now a widely established fact. Nevertheless, there is still a scarcity of knowledge concerning the source, transport, fate and bioavailability of such active compounds. In the present study we assessed the distribution of estrogenic, (anti-)androgenic, pregnane X receptor-like (PXR) and dioxin-like activities between sediment and water compartments using a polar organic compound integrative sampler (POCIS) and a semi-permeable membrane device (SPMD) passive sampler in a river where sediment has been previously described as highly and multi-contaminated. We first confirmed the contamination pattern of this river sediment between 2004, 2009 and 2010 samples, suggesting that this river is subject to a constant high contamination level. However, we showed a different distribution pattern of these activities between compartments: estrogenic activity was mainly detected in POCIS extracts and to a lesser extent in sediment and SPMD extracts; anti-androgenic activities were mainly detected in SPMD and sediment extracts while no activity was detected in POCIS extracts; PXR-like activity was detected in all three investigated compartments, with POCIS > SPMD > sediment; dioxin-like activity was mainly found in the sediment and the SPMD extracts. Overall, partitioning of the biological activities was in accordance with physicochemical properties (e.g., log K ow ) of typical known active chemicals in each bioassay. Furthermore, in order to establish whether the chemicals involved in these activities were similar between the compartments, we fractionated sediment, POCIS and SPMD extracts using a multi-step fractionation procedure. This highlighted differences in the nature of active chemicals between compartments. Altogether, our results support the need to consider different compartments in order to enhance exposure assessment.